30. Malcolm
Malcolm
“You’re doing it again.” Rory’s voice startles me and I straighten from my lean against the empty nurses’ station.
“Doing what?”
“Staring off into the distance, thinking about Makenna.”
I sigh. “I was just wondering what she’s up to.”
“You’ve got it bad …”
My kneejerk reaction is to deny it, but what’s the point in that? He knows. He encouraged me to give it a try with her.
“Aye. And now I don’t know what to do. I can’t tell how she feels, and I don’t want to scare her off. But she’s only here another week. At some point I’ll have to do something.”
“Test the waters a little. Be more affectionate and see how she responds.”
“I’ve done that a little. Some on purpose, some by accident.”
“By accident?”
“I felt her hair.”
Rory barks a laugh, drawing the attention of the patient who’d been pacing in the nearest exam room. The man opens the door. “I’ve been waiting over an hour! What’s going on?”
“We’re still waiting on your bloodwork, Mr. Adair,” Rory answers. “Dr. Robertson will be in as soon as we have it.”
“Aye, sure. Tell them to keep taking their time.” Mr. Adair lets the door close and heads back to his bed.
“How does one accidentally feel someone else's hair?”
“Shut up, Rory.”
He grins. “Mr. Adair’s bloodwork is ready. I was coming to tell you that when I found you mid-daydream.”
“Oh, good grief.”
I study the labs, and go give Mr. Adair the good news, then head to the on-call room to try to sleep.
After a night of patchy sleep, I’m home from the hospital. I open my front door and find Makenna sitting on the couch watching the telly.
She looks up as I’m toeing off my shoes and tries to blink tears from her eyes, but I see them anyway.
“What’s going on?” I sit beside her.
She smiles and gives me a small laugh. “It was a commercial. At the end the little girl shared her cookie with her grandpa. And she gave him the biggest piece.”
“Oh … okay …” Makenna’s tender heart strikes again.
“I know it’s crazy, but I’ve been crying over sappy commercials for a long time.”
“You know … there was a cereal commercial years ago that always got me.”
“Really?”
“Yes, but don’t tell my sisters.”
“Hmm …” Makenna’s eyes shimmer with mischief. “I feel like I should leverage this in some way.”
“Do you now?” If she only knew she didn’t need leverage.
“I do.” She brings her hand to her chin and begins tapping her beautiful lips with her finger. “I think I’ll think about it. It’s too important to make a snap decision.”
“Very canny. You certainly wouldn’t want to waste this opportunity.”
She grins. “How was work?”
“Things were pretty quiet until I tried to sleep and then someone needed something from me every hour.”
“Oh gosh. Do you want to lie down?”
“Ach, I’m fine. I may have a wee kip before we leave, but not just yet. What did you and Fiona get up to?”
“She brought me a dress from her company and it’s perfect. We shopped for shoes, and some other things. And we went to an amazing antique store, then to dinner and then to live music at Eden Court Theatre.”
“You didny have more fun with her than you do with me, did you?” I act like I’m upset, but I’m thrilled they got on so well. Fiona actually sent me a message before she left this morning telling me exactly how much she approves of Makenna, even offering if I had to move, she’d be okay with it.
“Your sister is pretty great,” she teases, and I love the twinkle in her eye. “When are you thinking we’ll head out?”
Makenna and I are leaving for our wee trip today, and I couldn’t be more excited to sightsee with her. Even if it means sleeping on a couch. It does make the wee kip a bit more important, now that I’m thinking about it.
“It won’t take me long to get the rest of my things after I wake up. How about you?”
“I’m ready anytime,” she says.” But no rush. Get all the sleep you need.”
I head toward the stairs, then stop. “I just realized, we’d talked about the hot tub at the tree house, but you can’t submerge in water yet. I’m sorry I didny think about it sooner.”
She doesn’t look terribly disappointed. Maybe she doesn’t like hot tubs. “Ah, I didn’t think about it either. That was in my discharge papers, and the doctor told me too. You could still use it, though. I’ll sit on the edge and stick my feet in.”
That wouldn’t exactly be the hot tub moment I hoped for, but that’s fine. Any moment with Makenna is a good one.
“We’ll see how things go. I have my trunks packed.”